The Fat Hippo Diaries

[Kotik]

Mornin' y'all,

What a month Not only did I get a new job, which happens to be bang smack in the middle of one of Germanies most spectacular mountain resorts, I also managed to re-establish some tentative contact with my long estranged mother. So in a moment of reflection I decided that, now that things are going rather well, after a couple of rather rotten years, I might just as well do it right. What happened?

Back in January 2006 I was diagnosed with Burnout syndrome and depression. At the time my weight at 1.73m of height was 66kg (145 lbs). After 6 months of heavy medication with Mirtazapine, I was still 1.73m (but by then circumference) and 109 kg (240 lbs). Since then I tend to refer to myself as 'the fat hippo'. If I walk by a house, the radio skips and I buy my clothes is size 6, which is the number of acres of material required to make them

So, finding myself in a mountainous region with lots of mountain trails, I decided to go on a hefty training scheme to try to lose a few tons of weight. This thread is meant to be my own little diary - a continuus motivation, so to say.

These are the trails I'm using:


This is my training schedule :

Monday to Friday

0600am: Jogging - 1 lap of the easy trail (1)
Length : 3.2 km (2 miles), height difference 60m (196ft)


1800 (6pm): walking (stiff pace) - 1 lap of the medium trail (1+5)
Length: 9.2km (5.6 miles), height difference 80m (270ft)


Saturday
1400 (2pm): walking (stiff pace) - 2 laps of the hard trail (1+6)
length: 10.6km (6,2miles) per lap, height difference : 340m (1115ft) per lap


Sunday
1000: walking (normal pace) from Lenzkirch to Feldberg (10km/6miles)
after arrival:
walking (stiff pace) 1 lap Feldberg Spießhorn-Trail
length: 12,1km (7.4 miles), height difference 493m (1620 ft)

walking (normal pace) Feldberg - Lenzkirch (10km/6 miles)

After the first complete week of training. The stats are:

Distance covered: 115 km (71.5 miles)
Weight lost: 5kg (11 lbs)

5 kilos down, 35 to go...

Edit: Here's the "mountain" on the evening lap (snapped with old phone yesterday)

[Distracted]

Go, Kotik, go!

Those mountains are gorgeous.

[panyasan]

Keep us updated! Walking is a great way to lose weight and see more of your surroundings and walking helps me to get my thoughts sorted out.
So like Dis said: Go, Kotik, Go!

[Kotik]

We had a nasty thunderstorm an hour ago, so my evening romp looked like a cancellation, but now it's sunny with 28°C again. This is the amazing thing about this place. You can have all four seasons within a day. Last wednesday (the first day of my training) it was snowing! The day after was sunny with 15°C and now - a week later - the temperature has doubled.

here's a picture I just took, standing at the entrance to our office.

[putaro]

Your thumb is looking very svelte in that picture!

We're about the same height, Kotik, and the last time I weighed 66 Kg was when I was in high school and I was a stick. I'm shooting to get myself down to about 75. Got to get back to my walking too. Not a lot of nature in Tokyo so I usually content myself with taking pictures of whacky stuff you see on the street. I enjoy the used Ferrari dealers, I'll have to post some pics from them sometime.

[Weeble]

Gotta be some good trout fish in up there!

[Cogito]

I must say that I'm very impressed at the amount of exercise you're doing from day one. You must be either relatively fit to start with, or very VERY determined.

[Kotik]

I cannot say much about my fitness, I seriously have no idea if I'm fit or not. I can manage a 20 mile walk, even though my feet a killing me by then. Back in the day when my car was actually heavier than me, I had good stamina. Cross-country running was the one thing in school sports, where I always got top marks. It's not like I did go from nought to sixty since day one. Take the evening route for instance. A week ago I finished it in about 2 hours 45 minutes. Yesterday I did it in 2 hours 14 minutes and that included several stops to take pictures and a 10 minute break. I'm steadily increasing the pace. I didn't go flat out from the start. I'm thirty eight now and not even counting my obesity, I'm not in the best of shapes. By the time I hit 40, I want to be in some shape that remotely matches my appearance 6 years ago.

The short-time goal for this summer is, that the waist-strap of my backpack shall actually fit around my gut. Even if I extend it to it's maximum length I still can't close it around my waist. That has to change, pronto.
The long-time target is to rebuild muscles and stamina. Sometimes around my 40th birthday I want to run a marathon. During my army-time, when I didn't yet generate my own gravity field, I did several 20 mile cross-country runs in full gear with a 15kg machine gun on my back. Of course I'll never get back into such a shape again - after all I was 19 back then - but a marathon should be possible at 40. I know people, who do that competatively at that age.

Here's some impression from yesterday's 5.6 mile lap.


This is the view from my hotel room.


Shortly after the start. The little creek to the right is called Haßlach and the halfway point of the route is up in the mountains at its spring.


The 5.6mile route is basically a 4.6 mile loop tacked onto the easy 2 mile route that I jog in the mornings, making it figure-8 shaped. This is where the two loops meet. I'll first veer off to the right up the moutain for the 4-mile extra loop. On return i'll go straight ahead for the last mile of the route. The mountain you see ahead in the distance is the one that I climb twice on saturdays.


About 25% into the extra loop. Down in the valley is the path of the return leg. The little tarn on the right is called Ursee (lit.: prehistoric lake)


The return leg through the valley. To the right is the hill the previous pic was shot from. The little shed belongs to an estate that is called Mösle-Hof, which I'm pretty sure was a decent name some 300 years ago, but unfortunately, in todays swabian dialect it means 'little c*nt estate'. Pretty unfortunate choice of name, if you ask me...


This isn't a modern art attempt at showing a man in an indecent situation, but one of several wells along the route. The log is hollowed out, serving as a basin. It's ice cold water from a mountain spring. This place is the halfway mark of the easy route, meaning it's only one more mile to the finish. I took a longer break here. I came in at 1:40h and since I usually do the easy (2 miles) route in about 30 minutes, I shall soon break the 2 hour mark on the long route.
The little path left of the well is, where the "black trail" (the difficult 6.2 mile route on saturdays) is separating from the other two. It's the start of a hefty two mile ascend averaging 9% gradient. I'll tackle that one twice tomorrow.


Just a quarter of a mile from the finish. This is the final descend back into Lenzkirch. That cross on the right seems to be some sort of important place for the local religious folk. There's a Virgin Mary figurine in the base of the cross.

Wheather permitting, I'll post pictures from tomorrows long trail, with a highest point of about 3400 feet above sea level.

Cheers

[Distracted]

Gorgeous!

[Silverbullet]

Kotik, you are killing me. How beautiful it all is. So clean. I am reminded so much o the Gernany I knew.Not the one that is around now.

I envy you so much. NOw all I need is for you to say that there are the greatest Schrippen in the world there.

SB

[panyasan]

Love your pictures!!

[Asso]

Love your pictures!!

Me too!

[Kotik]

New pictures coming on tuesday. Just taking a break at 3400ft tapping into my phone.cCheers